Government plans to train 136,000 drivers

According to the BRTA, there are 35,82,460 registered vehicles in the country and only 18,11,210 people have driving licensees Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune

Of the 1.36 lakh, BMET alone will train 100,000 while BRTC will train the rest under the guideline of Bangladesh Road Transport and Highways Division

The government has taken an initiative to train more than one lakh people to be skilled in driving for both heavy and light vehicles by 2023.

The project, undertaken by Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) and Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), will kick off this year to mitigate crisis of skilled drivers, according to a member of the cabinet.

Of the 136,000 lakh, BMET alone will train 100,000 while BRTC will train the rest under the guideline of Bangladesh Road Transport and Highways Division, according to the Finance Division. The project will be financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

AMA Muhith disclosed the plan during a regular cabinet meeting held at the Bangladesh Secretariat on Monday.

Quoting Muhith, the cabinet member said: “We need skilled drivers and we would like to start the training program soon.”

Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Nurul Islam, the BMET director (Training, standard and planning) said:“We will train one lakh people to turn them into highly-skilled drivers in the next five years.”

“Around 20,000 people will get be trained to have professional driving skills as per the plan each year,” he said.

“We are required to train up 36,000 drivers as per the proposal, which will start very soon,” said BRTC Chairman Farid Ahmed Bhuiyan.

According to the BRTA, there are 3,582,460 registered vehicles in the country and only 1,811,210 people have driving licensees.

According to a survey of the Bangladesh Passengers' Welfare Association (BPWA), the number of unregistered vehicles in Bangladesh is around 1,500,000.

BPWA Secretary Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury said the total number of registered and unregistered vehicle is more than 5,000,000 now, which means around 3200,000 vehicles are being driven by ghost drivers.”

“Besides, a commercial vehicle should be operated by three drivers each day,” he added.

“So the initiative to train up the drivers is a timely and realistic decision,” he said.